[SunkenCiv]

Heh... “The Commissar Vanishes”... the photo was doctored to remove someone else, behind Stalin’s right shoulder, if memory serves, and the short man who was removed later was Beria’s predecessor over the NKVD/KGB; also if memory serves, he remained in prison and wound up getting executed about the same time as Beria, some months after Stalin’s death.

The scene is a canal constructed at great cost in human life.

[Old Sarge]

Heh... “The Commissar Vanishes”

"Der Komissar's in Town, uh-oh..."

[Revolting cat!]

Indeed. All expertly done long before the inventors of today's Photoshop were born. And the commissar who vanished was Nikolai Yezhov, chairman of the NKVD during Stalin's Great Purge. He became known for his cruelty and sadism. But he was executed (after tortures) before Beria, in 1940. (Who does he remind you of? And not only in this photo, but there are others under different angles that work similarly!)